Pak agencies aiding Taliban: US think-tank

WASHINGTON - A leading conservative US think-tank has accused members of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, of aiding Taliban fighters in neighbouring Afghanistan, an allegation that Islamabad has consistently denied.

In a new report, funded by the Pentagon, the Rand Corporation claimed that individual Pakistani agents had provided intelligence to insurgents.

The Rand report says Pakistani sources tipped off the Taliban about the movement of Afghan and foreign forces. This had undermined several American and NATO operations, it asserted.

The study, titled 'Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan', says that the ISI and the Frontier Corps "have failed to root out Afghan insurgent groups based in Pakistan and, in some cases, individuals from these Pakistani organisations have provided direct assistance to such groups as the Taliban and Haqqani network."

According to the report's author, Seth Jones, the Taliban and other groups "are getting help from individuals in Pakistan's government, and until that ends, the region's long-term security is in jeopardy."

Other groups such as Al-Qaeda and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Islamic Hezb-i-Islami organisation are also getting support in Pakistan, according to the study.

It says the insurgents find refuge in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, North West Frontier Province and Balochistan province.

"They regularly ship weapons, ammunition and supplies into Afghanistan from Pakistan, and a number of suicide bombers have come from Afghan refugee camps based in Pakistan," the report says.

The Taliban were removed from government in a US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 and are waging an insurgency that has gained pace in the last two years.

There are nearly 70,000 foreign soldiers from more than 40 nations attached to NATO's International Security Assistance Force, backing the growing Afghan army and police force tackle the insurgents and rising crime.